10th Steel Strips Open Bridge Championship opens tin Chandigarh on 16th May

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Chandigarh Bridge Association (CBA) is hosting the 10^th Steel Strips Open Bridge Championship in the city from 16-18 May.

Mr. H.S. Dhariwal, President, CBA informed that more than 30 teams comprising five to six players each, are expected to participate in this three days national open Bridge championship at Hyatt Regency in Chandigarh.

The national and international teams from various states of India including Punjab, Haryana, Uttrakhand, UP, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, Rajasthan and Chandigarh, have confirmed their participation, he said.

The team events in the championship will comprise of eight rounds of Swiss League of 10 boards per round to be played on May 16 and 17, while the  top eight teams will play super league on May 17 and 18.

The pairs event will consist of three sessions and will be played on 17-18 May, and eight teams and eight pairs will be awarded prizes.

Chandigarh Open has been a major attraction since its inception in 2000. The scale of participation and the intensity of competition has been increasing every year indicating the growing popularity of the fascinating intellectual game called Bridge

Besides the annual world tournaments, it is a part of the Asian games where India teams have won prizes.

Cyber Safety workshop for school children in Chandigarh

Fifty-five percent off children on social media share their passwords with others making them vulnerable to cyber crimes, said cybersecurity expert Vibhu Agarwal of Connect Broadband at a Rotary workshop organized at Ajit Karam Singh International Public School, Sector 45, Smart School in Chandigarh, on 18th April.  

With growing usage of mobile phones in every home, infants and children are getting easy access to the internet content which is scary, said school principal Jasmine Kalra. 

The cybersecurity workshop and the quiz were organized by Rotary Club Chandigarh, and Connect Broadband as a part of its social responsibility initiative to sensitize children against cybercrime.

Later, in the Intra School NetChamp Quiz Jatin Dahiya and Pranshul of Class X A ,  won the first prize, and would now be eligible to participate in the city-round as well as the grand finale next month.

Connect Broadband has already reached out to over 10,000 children in almost 43 schools of Chandigarh and Punjab to generate awareness and protect them from online stalkers, hackers and fraudsters. 

First-ever international moot court competition starts at Mohali tomorrow

18 air law teams from 11 countries to participate.

50 Air Law experts from 40 countries to judge the competition

Chandigarh, April 4: Eighteen teams of law universities from 11 countries converge to Chandigarh for the first-ever three-days international moot court competition which opens on 5^th April at the Army Institute of Law, informed senior lawyer and the founder of Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation.

It is for the first time that Leiden-Sarin International Air Law Moot Court Competition is being held in Mohali, and second time in India, which is organised jointly by Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation and Leiden University of The Netherlands, he informed.

The team of law students from universities of 11 countries are participating including from Singapore, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Poland, Germany, France, Sri Lanka, Russia, Canada, China and India

Mr. Justice Krishna Murari, Chief Justice of the Punjab & Haryana High Court, shall inaugurate the competition with Lt. Gen. Surinder Singh, Army Commander of Western Command as a guest of honour.

Performance of participating teams will be adjudged by over 50 experts in Air Law who have come from over 40 different countries. Some of the experts are the top legal officers of institutions like KLM, Swiss International, ICAO, IATA, Boeing, Jet Airways, etc.

In February 2019 during the India Rounds 23 teams from the best law schools of India had taken part and the best 4 were selected to participate in the finals which included National Law Institute University, Bhopal; Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow; Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur; and The Army Institute of Law, Mohali.

The finals of the event shall be judged by Mr. Justice Mahesh Grover, Judge, Punjab & Haryana High Court; Mr. Jiefang Huang, Director, Legal Affairs and Externa Relations Bureau, International Civil Aviation Organisation (“ICAO”) and Prof. Dr. Regula Dettling-Ott, University of Bern.

The Compromis for the Moot Competition is always drawn up by a global expert in the field of Aviation Law whose identity is disclosed only after the competition will get over on 7^th April, informed Nitin Sarin, Moot Court Coordinator.

The 1^st competition was held in New Delhi in 2010 while the 10^th will be held at the Army Institute of Law, Mohali from April 5 – 7, 2019. Every year the Moot is held in a different location and it has travelled from Dubai (2011), Istanbul (2011), Abu Dhabi (2013), Bucharest (2014), Beijing, China (2015), Jakarta, Indonesia (2016), Malta (2017), Seoul, South Korea (2018).

 

The International Universities represented at the Competition are:

Singapore Management University

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Leiden University, the Netherlands

Lazarski University, Poland

Cologne University, Germany

Université Paris-Saclay (Paris Sud), France

University of Wroclaw, Poland

Sri Lanka Law College, Sri Lanka

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

National University of Singapore

McGill University Institute of Air & Space Law, Canada

Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia

East China University of Political Science and Law, China

Wuhan University, China

Rotary Medical Missions from India saving lives in Africa

Indian doctors performed 68,000 surgeries in Africa in last 21 years through Rotary

Rotary medical mission returns after serving in Madagascar

Chandigarh, March 28:   In last 21 years Rotary from India has sent more than 500 doctors to serve in 43 countries, and majority of them had been from Chandigarh and surrounding areas, informed Rajendra K. Saboo, former world president of Rotary International here today.

The concept of intercontinental medical mission was conceived by Rajendra K. Saboo and his wife Usha Saboo with first mission in 1998 to Uganda,  which tremendously raised the stature of India in the world as a ‘giver’ and not a ‘receiver’ when teams of superspecialists shared their expertise and talent with the patients in Africa.

A team of 19 doctors from eight specialities along with Rotarian volunteers had recently returned from Madagascar, having attended to 3,500 patients in OPDs.

Some of the doctors from Chandigarh included eye surgeon Dr Nivedita Singh, dermatologist Dr Vanita Gupta, plastic surgeon, Dr V D Singh, ENT specialist Dr Raman Abrol, general surgeon Dr. N.S. Sandhu, gynecologist Dr. Nirlep Kaur, and orthopedician Dr. Ravjit Singh.

In the most trying situations, 163 eye, 73 general, 36 plastic, 34 ENT, 35 orthopedic, 8 gynecology, and 576 dental surgeries were done.  The dermatology department attended to 1250 patients and distributed free medicines to them. 

Doctors shared their experience of working in difficult situations with dismal infrastructure facilities and lack of trained manpower, causing proliferation of congenital diseases, and many curable but neglected cases of skin diseases, bone infections, broken bones, hernia, goiter, clubfoot, burn injuries, etc.

Dr Vanita Gupta said that the country has no trained dermatologist, and skin diseases including fungus, scabies abounded.  Eye surgeon Dr. Nivedita found nonfunctional equipment in the operation theatre including auto-clave (sterliser) and then used pressure cookers to manage the situation.

Indian doctors are most respected for their talent, their ability to work in difficult conditions for long hours,and to innovate at the spur of the moment, Dr VD Singh added.

Praveen Goyal, District Governor 3080, who was a part of the team as a volunteer, said that it moved us to see smiles on the faces of the patient after surgery like the young 8-years old girl who was able to smile because of dental problem. 

The team of doctors included from India included ophthalmologists, orthopedic surgeons, dentists, maxillofacial surgeons, gynecologists, general surgeons, ENT surgeons, plastic surgeons,  pathologists and anesthesiologists, who

also trained local doctors in newer medical techniques.

Each medical specialist not only conducted surgery, dispensed medicines, but more importantly, trained the local doctors and paramedics in the latest advances in various medical disciplines, informed Saboo.

Saboo had also initiated medical missions in remote corners of India too in 2006 where similarly teams of doctors travelled to tribal areas and hard-to-reach locations to serve them.  So far 14 such medical missions in India have been carried out in different parts of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, J&K, Chhatisgarh, and Nagaland.

The next international medical mission with team of 17 doctors in going to Mongolia from 5^th to 17^th May 2019.

Connect Broadband inks MoU with Quick Heal for Cyber Safety

Connect Broadband has joined hands with leading cyber security company, Quick Heal Technologies Limited, to provide comprehensive data and privacy protection solutions to its enterprise customers.

Mr. Sanjay Bahl, Business head of Connect Broadband and Mr. Jyotish Werulkar, Country Manager of Quick Heal shared the growing threats that the corporate business houses, educational institutions and enterprises are facing these days and announced their security solutions for protection of businesses from Cryptojacking, web-based attacks, ransomware attacks and phishing..

The rapid adoption of digital technologies in the absence of sufficient cyber security measures, makes businesses everywhere vulnerable to cyber threats, Sanjay Bahl said

More than 2 million malware, 16,000 ransomware, 13,000 cryptomining malware, 141,000 exploits, and 40,488 potentially unwanted applications (PUAs) and adware are detected everyday, as per Quick Heal Technologies report.

Quick Heal detected more than 180 million threats on Windows devices of individual and enterprise users between April and June 2018, according to their report.

Quick Heal’s leading brand for enterprise security, SEQRITE, would be available to Connect Broadband users to protect their networks, data, endpoints security, mobile device management, to prevent data loss and unwarranted threats to business operations.

PGI and Rotary to work for a TB-Free Chandigarh

Walkathon held at Sukhna Lake to observe World TB Day

On the World TB Day, the Department of Pediatrics PGIMER and Rotary Club Chandigarh have teamed up for TB-Free Chandigarh.

A walkathon was organized at Sukhna Lake, which marked the beginning of a partnership towards global initiative to End TB, and generate public awareness.

Dr Jagat Ram, Director, PGIMER, along with his wife flagged off the walkathon in which Rotarians including Past Rotary International President Rajendra K. Saboo, Rotaractors, nursing staff of PGI, students and teachers of Bhavan Vidyalaya Chandigarh, and citizens participated.

Rtn. Dr. Meenu Singh, head of pediatric pulmonology Advanced Pediatrics Centre at PGI said that Chandigarh harbours nearly 3,000 notified TB patients and approximately 250 pediatric patients.

Department of Pediatrics, PGIMER and Rotary Club Chandigarh have teamed up and shall be working together to combat TB in Chandigarh  through a series of event like screening for patients in residential colonies and organising public awareness campaign, she said.

This curable disease is still the world’s deadliest killer claiming nearly 4,000 lives per day globally and through a concerted efforts by WHO and different global agencies since 2000, nearly 54 million lives have been saved.

Last year the Prime Minister of India gave a clarion call to end TB by 2025, five years earlier than the global target.

The walkathon marks the partnership of PGIMER with Rotary Club of Chandigarh and accelerate action to End TB, said President A P Singh, President, Rotary Club of Chandigarh.

The theme of World TB Day 2019, ‘It’s time’, puts the accent on the urgency to act on the commitments made by global leaders to scale up access to prevention and treatment;  build accountability;  ensure sufficient and sustainable financing including for research;  promote an end to stigma and discrimination, and  promote an equitable, rights-based and people-centered TB response.

On 24 March 1882 Dr. Robert Koch officially announced the discovery of bacterium causing TB and it is this day each year which is observed as world tuberculosis day, to raise the public awareness about health, social, and economic consequences of the dreadful disease.

Kings XI Punjab and Rotary Chandigarh tribute to CRPF martyrs

Kings XI Punjab and Rotary Club Chandigarh give Rs.25 lakh to 5 families of martyrs from Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

Rs.5 lakh each to the CRPF jawans from Punjab and Himachal

In a unique campaign run by Kings XI Punjab, with the assistance of the Rotary Club for the CRPF jawans who lost their lives during the Pulwama attack, had their families present at the press meet today and were each given cheques of Rs 5 lakh by Kings XI Punjab.

The five CRPF jawans who lost their lives were Jaimal Singh from Dharamkot, District Moga; Sukhjinder Singh from Tehsil Patti, District Taran Taran; Maninder Singh Attri from Dinanagar, District Gurdaspur; Kulwinder Singh from Tehsil Anandpur Sahib, District Rupnagar; and Tilak Raj from Kangra, Himachal Pradesh

Present at the event were Kings XI Head of Operations Anant Sarkaria, Rotary District Governor Rtn. Praveen Goyal, Rotary Club Chandigarh President Rtn. A.P. Singh, Kings XI Captain Ravichandran Ashwin, Mayank Agarwal, and Mandeep Singh in the presence of Senior DIG CRPF Punjab V.K. Kaundal, and other senior Rotarians.

Anant Sarkaria said, “We are extremely grateful to have partnered with the Rotary Club of Chandigarh for this project who have helped us connect with the families of our brave jawans, who put their lives on the line every single day for us, and we as a team would like to stand behind and honour their sacrifice.”

These five jawans being honoured were part of the 78-vehicles convoy carrying 2,547 CRPF personnel who were ambushed and attacked at Pulwama on 14th February.

Rotary Club Chandigarh President Rtn A.P.Singh said that three years back we had initiated the project of sending 5000 kg of sweets every  Diwali to the jawans at the border, and we are grateful to KXIP for making us a vehicle of doing good for the Pulwama martyrs as well.